Council rejects halfway house request

The West Walnut Street halfway house and transition program facility will not be operating in the near future.

Operation Transition Inc. made two requests to the Goldsboro City Council to try to provide a smoother jail-to-society transition for formerly incarcerated people -- requests that were opposed in the last council meeting's public hearing segment and denied by the city's Planning Commission.

The council denied both requests at its meeting Monday night after taking into consideration the public and Planning Commission's concerns about the buildings at 305 and 307 W. Walnut St. not meshing well with the revitalization efforts going on downtown.

The first request was to rezone the property located on the north side of the street between North George and North Virginia streets from residential to central business district.

The company also requested a conditional use permit.

The requests would have allowed the company to provide residence for 18 former inmates who would be going through the transition program.

Among those making the decisions Monday night were newly sworn-in District 1 councilman Michael Headen and soon-to-be-selected mayor protempore Chuck Allen.

Headen took Jimmy Bryan's place on the council after he decided not to run again, and Allen was selected mayor protempore toward the end of the meeting after serving in the position for the past five years.

Council also made a decision to approve Import Auto Center's request for rezoning from neighborhood business to general business conditional district, but had stipulations in an effort to make sure that the property would remain tidy. To do so, council members requested that the company assign parking spaces instead of having cars just pile up all around the property.

Also approved were consent agenda items including: the sale of city-owned property at 107 Piedmont Place; an amendment to the Self-Help agreement for affordable housing development; a resolution requesting DOT to designate certain county roads as part of the National Truck Network System; and a site and landscape plan for an apartment parking lot located on the south side of Wilmington Avenue between Isler Street and Devereaux Street.

Council approved the reclassification of the Paramount Theater director position as well, changing the salary range from mid-$40,000 to a $45,988 to $68,982 range.

An agreement with Kimley-Horn & Associates to conduct a feasibility study was also approved, but council members wanted to wait on the study results before continuing with the project part of the Neuse River Bank stabilization.